Arriving at the front of Mario’s apartment building, Luigi, now with an “L” on the front of his beret to go along with Mario’s beret, parks the company van he is in; a brand new white one with the logotype “Super Mario Bros. Plumbing” painted on it by Luigi himself. His lack of knowledge for the English language resulted in it reading “Mario Bros.” instead ofit being their last name, which is—

“Mario!” Called Luigi loudly on the inter-communicator for the building, trying to reach Mario in his apartment, with no response. He tries multiple times, waits for him, looks to see if he went out, and sees the go-kart is gone, then thinks Mario could have driven over to the plumbing job to meet him there, so Luigi leaves, but once he arrives to said location, he realizes he is not there, “He wasn’t in the office either…” Thought he, and hopes Mario is fine, maybe visiting Peach, or something similar.

In the police station, Mario is being “interrogated” in a crowded room with four police officers and a detective taking their turns at beating him as to make him “talk”. They would not even let him use his rightful telephone call.

“What is your full name?” Asked one of the men to Mario.

“Mari--“Even before starting to say his last name, Mario is punched hard in the face.

“Where is the girl?”

“She is-ah safe, I never esah-tealeh her.”

“Do you have proof of that? Why don’t I believe you?”

“She is-ah alive! I can communicate!!”

“How so? Who took her that day if it wasn’t you? Who’s your accomplice? We have witnesses, damn it!”

“Let me use-ah telephone.”

At this request, the guards, under command, take Mario to a cold solitary cell. “We’ll let you use it once you tell us everything, who knows who you’ll call. Maybe your terrorist buddies from those I-ranian countries, huh?”

Mario, bleeding slightly from the left side of his lower lip and with a black eye, thinks the cop is right in his intuitive thinking that he is not telling the entire story, but it still does not give him/them the right to abuse him in that manner. “Twisted.” Thinks he, “Even more against outsiders of this country.” Mario cannot ever tell the entire truth, it would be catastrophic if he does, for the world would know this man has been traveling inter-dimensionally and that there are vicious, giant beasts on the other side that could potentially travel to Earth (one of which already did and was the one that took Peach “that day”), it would all create panic, chaos, the government’s owning of Mario for tests, decontamination sequences—no, no, no—never. Not to mention it would ruin Peach’s position and reputation for the Mushroom Kingdom.

Mario stays in the cell, thinking…

After work, Luigi continues to wonder where Mario is, but decides to leave it for the next morning, when he hopes the go-kart will be back in its place.

It is now morning, a very wet morning, as rain falls from the sky with tremendous force. Luigi visits Mario’s apartment building once again, and is startled and surprised to see police cars parked outside.

“Please don’t let it be about Mario.” Prayed he in his thoughts.

He approaches the entrance of the building; the officers quickly get out of their cars and violently take him down on the ground and handcuff him. “What did I do?!” Yelled a very furious Luigi that does not tolerate any kind of racism or racial discrimination. Upon closer examination by comparing the mug shot of Mario to Luigi’s face, the cops realize it is not the same person (only an almost identical brother) and release him. However they question him, believing him to be the supposed “accomplice" that took Peach, to which he denies.

In Mario’s apartment, Luigi and the police, more calm now, converse. After the police ask Luigi if he knows where Mario is, Luigi skips to the point and tells them that Mario never kidnapped the woman, let alone kill her; it was quite the contrary: he was trying to save her from the culprit’s “claws”, or so he puts it.

Peach arrives at the apartment looking very surprised. Luigi instantly points at her, “There is-ah she!” Said he loudly in relief and then sneezes.

Peach looks even more surprised and a little scared thinking Luigi somehow revealed her secrets to the police.

A man wearing a brown coat, holding up a badge in his hand, comes up to Peach, “Detective Gaffaby. Good morning. Ma’am, were you kidnapped a year ago by this man?” The detective shows the mugshot of Mario to Peach and then takes out a witness depiction sketch of her face and compares it to her present face to be sure it is her.

Peach sighs in relief that this is not about her, but worries about Mario even more with that question.

“No, it was a bad…man. Mario saved me from him even though you officers slowed him down; thank goodness he still came on time to rescue me.

“Apparently you can’t always rely on witnesses; they thought your friend did it.” Said the detective, convinced she is not a decoy now. After that, there is a brief silence in that living room where they are in, then the detective turns his sight to Luigi and says:

“Well, your brother Mario is missing. We had him in the station after apprehending him, but he escaped late last night: security cams showed us he punched his way out of the walls, God knows how, and left pretty big holes, too.”

Peach and Luigi look at each other seriously.

“Tell you what: we’ll relieve him of any acts he committed, since we know he’s innocent, but either he or you will have to pay for the damages and his speeding."

The couple agree, leave their information to the detective and cops, for contacting purposes, then the cops hand them the infraction tickets, Peach also describes the mock-thief to a cop that sketches it. As Gaffaby is heading out, he says, “Oh, and another thing.” He turns around addressing Luigi, “Shave those mustaches; you both look like terrorists. We don’t wanna confuse you with them, do we?”

Although nodding in concurrence, Luigi thinks it to be a very ignorant comment, making him believe the man has not traveled the world and is culturally poor. "Just because a man sports a mustache does not make him a terrorist, likewise, just because a terrorist sports a mustache does not make all terrorists mustachioed."

“You’re letting him go?" Asked a cop to the detective, to which the latter responds, “We beat him pretty hard... Next thing you know he’ll be suing us for excessive force and abuse of powers. This way he probably won’t.” The detective takes out his umbrella and goes to his car.

“He’s not in the Kingdom, otherwise, he would have already contacted me there.” Contemplates Peach. Luigi tells her Mario was not anywhere he looked, either.

Peach and Luigi commence a search for Mario’s whereabouts in all of New York, but cease after one day and one quarter with negative results. Peach goes back to the Kingdom saddened; she has to give her blessings to the new Mushroom troops, not to mention the portal is almost closing.

Luigi, in his apartment, carefully checks his two-day neglected mail letters: Bill, bill, propaganda, a post card, bill—a post card? He looks at it, it has the image of the decade old fad of a yellow circle with a smiling face. Written on the back, he finds Italian letters scribbled with blue ink. The English translation would be:

“Jumpman travels the world starting with JCCh country.”

Without a doubt, it is the recognizable handwriting of his brother. Luigi instantly knew, too, that “JCCh” stands for Julio Cesar Chávez, the recently famous Mexican boxer they both admire, so he deducts Mario is in Mexico.

Luigi smiles and calls Azalea to let her know he will indefinitely be unavailable for work. He tells her to hire two or three plumbers in the meantime.

(All characters and some settings are copyrighted and belong to Nintendo, Novel created and registered by Axtlár based on the accounts from the "Super Mario" games. Plagiarization not intended; it is merely a fanatic tribute for entertainment purposes.)

As the mustachioed brothers enjoy their sausages and scrambled eggs in that now known city of New York, Peach emerges from the bathroom after taking a shower, since the three of them stayed together last night. Luigi has been living in a brand new, almost luxurious apartment, while Peach and Mario share that one in which they are, for they are quite the inseparable couple now; very much enamored of each other. Peach and Mario’s apartment is also on the luxurious extreme, decorated with animal statues and photographs of the couple’s family and friends (with the exception of Mushroom persons to avoid any suspicion of the existence of the world she is from).

Peach, wearing a Tennis skirt over shorts and an exercise shirt, joins the brothers and has a small glass of milk. She was thinking earlier of pulling a prank on the two consisting of an unusual joke, but instead decided to abandon it, “Maybe for next year’s ‘Fish of April.’" Thought she, “When they might feel more comfortable about it.”

Mario and Luigi, once finishing breakfast, change into their exercise clothes, grab a bag full of Tennis racquets and balls, and head out to go to the park and play Tennis along with Peach.

Arriving at the park, they wait a couple of minutes for the courts to be available for them to play on. Mario sees that as a good opportunity to take out the book he has been reading, the Divina Commedia herself: The Inferno by Dante Alighieri. He shows it to Peach and Luigi, the latter shakes his head “no” a little while smiling, thinking Mario reads weird stuff, but is proud the author is a compatriot to their country. Peach immediately becomes interested in the book, asking all kinds of questions about it, even though Mario barely began to read it days ago.

The conversation switches into what books Peach has read from Earth in the English language; she complains that most fiction authors try to create a language to input into the exotic characters of their stories, only to fail miserably, because all they achieve is to recreate English with different outlandish symbols for each English letter of the alphabet. She explains this with the “the end” phrase in epilogues, and Mario imagines it:

“Yes-ah, no much creh-ativity.” Said he agreeably. According to his thoughts, one has to have been to different countries (even worlds, in Peach’s case, even though she knows more than five languages from Gnoomes already), to understand the complexities of conjugations, structures, colloquialisms, and even semantics of an idiom.

Coincidentally, a court is now available, so the three stretch, warm up, and begin to play; Peach and Luigi play against Mario in Australian Doubles first. Peach has an energy incomparable to the siblings, she almost does not let Luigi touch the ball with his racquet. Peach and Luigi win the match, then they switch partners; it is now Mario and Luigi going against Peach, since they noticed she is quite good at the sport, better than them, at least. As though Peach is reading both of their minds, she lobs, drops, and hits the ball (all previous three verbs in Tennis terms) potently to her advantage, winning the match in no time, and leaving the siblings astounded.

The latter two sweat and breathe incessantly but congratulate her nonetheless, even though Luigi feels mad but does not show it at all.

“I am sorry. I cheated, but didn’t mean to.” Said Peach shamefully.

The brothers look at each other smiling in an almost sarcastic, incredulous way, thinking she is just being modest, not knowing how she could have ever cheated since they had their sights fixed upon her, and the ball, at all times while playing.

Mario was sure it was his stomach that caused him to under perform; it looked fat…Any more and he might even look pregnant, at least he thought, because his body is not wide sideways -he looks slender-, it is just that stomach; it grew somewhat since last year. And the same can be said for Luigi, although it is less prominent than Mario’s.

The trio chat together and laugh as they approach their car, an ’84 convertible Cavalier that was paid with both the plumbers’ money and Peach’s anthropological work pay; her high intelligence earned her a diploma in New York University in just four months; she also helped them obtain the new rentals for their apartments, it was the least she could do, thought she, after everything both of them did for the kingdom. Mario and Luigi were not content with her spending, but could not decline her offer out of courtesy, so they conditioned her, telling her to take advantage of the apartments and vehicles for her use whenever she desired.

The three of them drive for a while. There are signs on the streets “April Fools’ Day Sale”, “So, that’s how they say it here, while ‘Pesce d’aprile’ in Italy. Funny festivity.” Thought Peach. They head to a neighborhood, outside the downtown area, with abundant trees, to meet friends in a house and enjoy a juicy barbecue in their company, among other things.

Upon arrival, they are greeted by a Japanese twenty-six year old,

“Mario, Luigi! My favorite Italians…! And who is this?” Asked he with a slight Japanese accent, looking at the female from head to toe, smiling with a hint of slyness in his tone.

To which Ryota responded, looking at Luigi: “Dude, he sure knows how to pick ‘em, huh?”

“You don’t have idea.” Said Luigi to him and they all laugh.

Inside, Mario introduces all of Luigi's and his friends to Peach . Among them there is Joe, Kid, Sherry, Nester, and others, most of which they met in work circles and in the park where they usually go to play various sports.

Ryota sits beside Mario on a couch as the trio have barbecue and watch a big screen television. Ryota asks Mario if he remembers “Little Mac”, the boxer Mario once instructed as a referee; of course he does remember him, who could have forgotten Mac beat that mastodon of a man, “Mr. Dream”, years ago? and so Ryota tells him Mac is fighting Rick “The Bruiser” Smith in a few minutes and that they bought the pay-per-view match. Mario gets excited, for he wants to see how good Mac has gotten. As soon as the match starts, Mario thinks Ryota has Mac confused with a blond, blue-eyed boxer (since Mac had brown eyes and black hair).

“Ehh, where is-ah Littohl Mac?” asked he confusedly.

“That’s him, the blond one with blue shorts --the other one is ‘The Bruiser’, he wants his WVBA titleeee!!”

“He painted hair?”

“Oh, yeah, man, you must’ve not seen his last matches this season; he dyed his hair blond and wears blue contacts—go figure—he looks kinda tubular, though.”

As the day goes on, they all enjoy socializing, and finally in the 4th round of the boxing match, Mac gives a K.O. to “The Bruiser”. Everybody cheers, especially Peach, who very excitedly cheers the most because she likes that type of coexistence and also had heard about Mac from Mario himself.

“Now you have to shave your head, Joe!” said Nester jokingly to the long-haired man, apparently because of an earlier bet.

The trio say good-bye happily and head home, it is now dark outside.

Back at Mario’s apartment, the trio play board games, get bored after an hour, then Peach suggests to play the video game they bought a while back, “Shitomii Entertainment System”, but the brothers admit they do not like video games, and even though Mario played some that Professor Gadd engineered, he thinks they “rot the brain”. After a while, Luigi goes back to his apartment and Peach goes back to the Mushroom Kingdom, “Be careful.” said Mario to her. “I will.” then she kisses him.

“Bye-bye.”

Now that the work-free day is over and fun has been enjoyed , Mario calls Luigi to his apartment, reminding him, half-jokingly (since he knows Luigi is probably well aware of), that they have to work tomorrow. What they say if in English:

“I know…But I also want us to try our hand at getting a diploma, like Peach did. We could even get a scholarship, it won’t take that much of our time. Imagine what we could do with that.”

“Yes, I am not opposed to it, we will talk about it.” Said Mario, thoughtfully.

“Well, pick you up at 1:40.” Said Luigi.

“Ok, see you tomorrow.”

“Buona notte.”

“Buona notte.”

Both hang up. Then they each go to sleep after their routine night cleansing.

The plumbers now have a more successful and bigger company, with a vaster clientele, headquarters, secretaries, the whole cannoli. Azalea, the main secretary, is the one that calls Mario and Luigi to instruct them where and when to go for their next services, therefore, it being more of an indirect relationship between customer and employer than it used to be, but they also get a lot more work than before.

Mario wakes up the following morning with plenty of time to kill before Luigi is to come pick him up to go to work. So, he decides to “carpe diem”. First, he exercises; he does push-ups, abdominals, even lifts some weights, but tires quickly. He looks at his stomach, not proud at all, and thinks he has to step it up and exercise five consecutive days every week, at least.

He puts a sweatshirt on and goes out, intending to jog, until he sees his go-kart covered with a sackcloth in its hideout and realizes he has not used it in a long time. He takes the sackcloth off the kart and mounts it to go for a morning ride. He drives around the park that he frequents and not even for a second does he remember last year when the police cars were pursuing him very fast for being accused of harming Peach, when in reality it was Koopa that princess-napped her. He must have forgotten the very Earthly police chase after the unforgettable otherworldly event, the “inferno” he went through and its ordeals that occurred and now reside in his most outstanding memories.

Just on cue, as your narrator’s last sentence is still being computed in your minds, two police officers eating donuts inside their police car stationed on the neighborhood next to the park, observe the go-kart going around the park.

“I love those things, they’re fun.” said the cop driver to the cop copilot, “Well, I used to anyway, ‘till this one idiot gave us trouble on one going at high speeds…Too bad the chopper wasn’t there to see where it went.”

“Yeah, I heard about that…What if it’s the same guy?”

“Nah, by now he probably would’ve sold the parts of the kart or sank it in a swamp somewhere.” Said he before sipping from a coffee cup, then spitting it all on the wheel in front of him as he views Mario’s face on the head on the body that drives the infamous go-kart.

“Well, I’ll be damned—it is him!—I would recognize that mustache on that son of a gun any day of the week!” He starts the engine and puts the gear on drive as he says this.

Mario continues to drive peacefully and slowly, enjoying the air and the beautiful morning, then BAM! A police car blocked the go-kart perpendicularly, making the latter crash into it, producing a loud sound. Bystanders watch in awe and curiosity. The two cops get out immediately and point their guns at Mario.

“Put your hands up!”

He does, staring at them defiantly. The cops approach him, “You have the right to remain silent, anything you say and do may be used against you in a court of law…”

(All characters and some settings are copyrighted and belong to Nintendo, Novel created and registered by Axtlár based on the accounts from the "Super Mario" games. Plagiarization not intended; it is merely a fanatic tribute for entertainment purposes.)

This chapter is dedicated to burchdude65 for anxiously anticipating this sequel, without him, I probably wouldn't have found the interest to write it. So, thank you, burchdude!

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Super Mario & Brother ®

A Novel by Axtlár

Part 1

The second extraordinary, life-changing incident in the life of Mario, I will now relate.

It has had an impact in both of the worlds his friends and he frequent.

If one must know his life, one must know all his prime moments, for they escalate…

…And are virulent.

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The year is 1984. Immigrants from Africa radicating in Europe have stolen exotic animals from around Europe for an eccentric millionaire, and his party and trade.

In Zaire, a dark-skinned hunter orders his lesser-ranked mates to unload a large, dark green tank vehicle saturated with cages interiorized with animals, they do so obediently. The man, possessing an inexpressive rostrum, wears brown military clothing, cargo pants tucked in his black boots, and a German Schemeiser MP-40 automatic rifle strapped across his chest. His eyes widen, showing brilliance of his most precious faunatic catch: a live gorilla. He approaches the cage where the gorilla lies captive.

“Lionel, Kuwa makini, yeye ni hatari.”

Said one of the men to the alpha hunter “Lionel”, the former already holding his AR-15 rifle just in case. Lionel ignores the man’s warnings of the danger of the gorilla, takes out a red tie from his pocket and shows it to the gorilla. The gorilla becomes enraged; the heavy iron cage even rattles a bit as the gorilla tries to pry it open to choke the man to death. Lionel grins and explains to the frightful rest that that will be needed for the client’s request for naturally hardened gorilla skin for cooking, especially if it’s a product of anger. After asked how Lionel knew how the tie would enrage the gorilla, Lionel takes out an Italian newspaper with the headline:

The other men, knowing not only Bantu and Swahili, but also Italian, German, and French, read rapidly how a zoologist enraged a gorilla by putting a red tie on it multiple times until it mentally snapped, broke its cage and grabbed her to take her atop a construction edifice. The men, after reading this, step back a few meters and all take out their guns aiming them at the gorilla.

A few weeks ago, Lionel and a different group (than the one he is with) trespassed a zoo in Venice where it was documented the infamous gorilla remained, and their sole interest for that zoo was to precisely steal that creature that got the attention of Lionel’s wealthy client; they did with ease after viewing the surveillance camera footage archived in drawers, to confirm it was the gorilla that was accidentally tortured by that woman zoologist; she must have thought that the gorilla looked “handsome” with the tie on, independent of its feelings.

Lionel tells his men to not worry since the cage is even stronger than the ones at the zoo.

The gorilla roars in tempest.

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In a strange land, meanwhile, Mario, Peach, Luigi, and a To’a’d creature are curiously enjoying traversing the location and fighting against hostile creatures. The To’a’d is flying an aerial vehicle, but very poorly, and eventually crashes it into the dirt below, but is unscathed, however.

A series of extraneous events follow: Peach begins to float in midair, kicking enemies below, Luigi jumps really high, fluttering his feet as he does, and gets on a red flying carpet, tossing an owl's head off of it, and the T'o'ad crouches for some seconds, glows, and jumps as high to get on said carpet. Luigi lowers the carpet so Mario can get on it, he does, and the three of them fly across the land while Peach follows floating behind. "What lack of chivalry!" ,thought the latter male, but did not do a thing about it.

After a while, the carpet is shot down by a fire ball spat from the leech-like protruding mouth of a pink, bipedal, seemingly reptilian creature wearing a bow. The carpet comes down to the ground, and the three on it jump acrobatically to the ground, again unscathed. The area is very green, surrounded by large trapezoid-shaped plains and vivid blue cataracts. Peach joins them, and the four stare at the creature and laugh at it. The creature spits large eggs at them, they evade, and Peach relentlessly grabs the eggs and throws them back at it, causing it to fall and not come back up. They all cheer and slap on each others' palms victoriously.

They enter a cave, encounter a jar out of which snakes slither, grab a snake (one each), flail it above their heads, dance around in unison, toss them away, and enter the jar only to emerge from another jar on the bottom side of it. The To'a'd grabs a clock from the jar before exiting it, stops time and munches on mushrooms like a glutton, becoming obese. Time normalizes and they are met by legions of three kinds of animals: a horse/shrimp hybrid -unable to be recognized-, a bomb with hideous feet, and the most horrendous, terrifying creature to Mario; a red coated thing with a white triholed mask. The face of the latter can only be a deep hole, he thinks, since the holes are purely and abysmally black and empty.

"B..Bo-bob-ombaaas!!" Yelled Luigi, apparently more scared of the bombs than the red esperpent. But the four adventurers, nonetheless, fight them all off after grabbing and eating shining small stars that conveniently came to them, then becoming powerful and beating easily the creatures. They arrive at a massive castle afterwards, Peach guides them to the ballroom where she wants to dance, and so they enter it. There is an enormous instrumental organ there and somebody relatively big playing it, wearing a red cape that covers his/her whole body. The sounds are beautifully fluent an--

"QUAL DIAVOLO TI TOCA?!"

Yelled Luigi to the individual, the latter of whom shoots his hands furiously at the keys making various low notes sound at the same time. The individual turns around in disgust, the furious red eyes of a large toad are revealed, a toad of menacing proportions in every sense of the word, being riddled with grains of any kind thinkable; acne; warts; callouses; insect bites, etc.

Next, the organ starts to spout large vegetables at the four adventurers. Peach is met by a great beet and goes down. Mario whimpers. The To'a'd is hit by a gigantic cauliflower and goes down. Mario gasps. Luigi is intersected by a massive onion and goes down. Mario sobs. He turns to the toad, crying, and the toad lashes its tongue at him and eats him whole.The toad laughs in its own way and sings in an opera-like manner, for a toad.

Mario wakes up from that nightmare with tears on his eyes, breathing heavily and rapidly. He then breathes profoundly -to calm himself-, and cleans himself off. He tries to decipher his dream, "The toad has to be a representation of repressed fear of Koopa...The mushrooms, the stars...Obvious...That red thing...Crazy Gadd...What the heck is it with the eggs monster...? Don't fear fear, ragazzo, don't fear fear." Thought he to himself. The dream was obviously a product of the real events that happened a year ago in Mushroom Kingdom, the traumatizing occurrences of that strange planet, and the memories of if all that he could never escape.

Then, he suddenly realizes the ridiculous pajamas he is wearing; they look as ancient as from the 13th century complete with a pointy hat and a fuzzy ball at the end of this. He takes them off and finds his normal pajamas on him. Luigi comes in, "Pesce d'Aprile!" tells he to Mario, laughing at the outlandish prank he played on Mario of putting those pajamas on him. Mario, although confused, laughs with his brother and has breakfast with him.

(All characters and some settings are copyrighted and belong to Nintendo, Novel created and registered by Axtlár based on the accounts from the "Super Mario" games. Plagiarization not intended; it is merely a fanatic tribute for entertainment purposes.)

Mario turns left after passing the statues and arrives to a spacious corridor with two long platforms ahead in the distance serving as upper levels of some sort. The air seems hotter here; the lava is ever closer to the ground than before. The smoke is unbearable in some areas. Mario contemplates where to head to next, when a figure approaches from out of the smoke ahead. It was a strange pale humanoid creature with black clothing holding papers and a small device. It stares at Mario, cautiously walking past him in case he decides to make a move, Mario stares back bewildered. Once the creature’s back faces Mario, it turns its head completely backwards to continue to stare at Mario. After it falls out of view, Mario dismisses having seen that and continues ahead.

He runs ten feet forth until a medium leveled platform is in place, he continues from below to another ten feet where yet another leveled platform is in place, this one higher up. For about five minutes he begins to realize something is not right: not only does everything seem the same as if he was running in circles, but also whenever he runs just below one of the leveled platforms, it feels as if the view was being programmed, like changing the channel on a television, only to the same channel. He notices the walls closely and discovers blue flickering of lights when crossing below the platforms. Mario figures it out instantly after noticing the blue lights: there are Dimen-tal1000 portals installed; making that room a sort of labyrinth. “There has to be a pattern I have to use to cross.” Thought he. He runs firstly on the bottom floor, then jumps to the second floor and continues in that floor, blue lights flicker on the walls and he goes back to the beginning. “Not right” He tries again, this time through the first floor, then second, and finally third; no blue lights this time. He has chosen the right trajectory and is now in a new area. Mario feels relieved and even sighs, thinking he could have been lost in that maze forever.

He keeps running, jumping over lava gaps, and evading various rotating flaming stone mechanisms until he hears a devastating roar that slightly makes the castle tremble. It was Koopa for sure, and it sounded very near. From a distance Mario can make out what seems to be fire flying towards him; it was like the flames of a flamethrower, only this was moving forward as if a giant arrow was propelling it. Mario uneasily evades the fire and feels the warmth it emanates very close to him as it passes him right by.

More and more flames are shot exactly to Mario’s way and he continues to dodge them. “Not only has that beast a ‘kilometric’ sight, but it can also spit fire…” Assumed Mario in his thoughts.

Mario arrives to the chamber where Koopa is. There is a metallic bridge that seems to be mechanized with gears connected to the opposite extreme where Mario stands. Koopa stands on that extreme, staring Mario down, breathing heavily, and releasing smoke from the nostrils; if the ‘subjects’ were beasts, he was the boss of the beasts, a monster.

Koopa seems more intimidating than the last time he was seen; it was now personal to him. Mario stared the monster down as well, and although he had never faced such a foe in his life, he feels secure for he has the orange flower in his pocket, and it was all the personal to him as well.

The monster speaks to Mario in horrendous sounds that he could not understand, and Mario responds with his own language, Italian, and a rage-filled yet awkward conversation starts. What they would say if in English:

“What do you want? My kingdom is not of your incumbency!” roared Koopa.

“Give me back Peach, filthy animal!”

“You have killed most of my subjects, pest!”

“What the hell are you saying, beast? Give me Peach back!”

“Die!” finally utters Koopa spitting fire to Mario, making the latter elude it. Mario then notices Peach in the distance chained to the wall, with her front side facing the wall and her dress ripped off from the lower part.

“She will give birth to my seeds after I am done with her. She will be my queen who will make my legacy continue. This kingdom is now mine and everyone will bow down to her and me. Everyone will comply for she is liked by all in this kingdom. I don’t mind her deformities. She will be the source of my offspring!” Ambiguously uttered Koopa to a confused Mario.

“What the hell do you want? Just give me Peach back!”

The two of them stare each other down once again, the tensions have been established between the two, and they each know that the other is not quite what they seem and is not to be underestimated. They stand there waiting for the other to make a move to start the fight, just like a duel in the old west. Mario does not take any chances and pulls the flower from his pocket to eat it, but Koopa does not take any chances either, so he spits fire very quickly to Mario’s hand, burning the flower completely but leaving Mario’s hand intact (thanks to his gloves). Koopa becomes furious at Mario’s attempt to fight dirty, and the fight begins.

Koopa, for the hulking monster that he is, is actually quite fast. He plunges to Mario slashing the air with his claws trying to ravage Mario to death, but Mario is fast, too, he jumps out of the way and evades the attacks. Mario positions himself behind the monster and punches it right on the carapace, avoiding the spikes, but it’s no use, it is too hard to hurt him; that’s his natural armor, after all.

Mario not only begins to run out of ideas, but out of air and patience, too. He looks at the monster’s chains dangling from its body, and rapidly gets a hold of its right arm chain, climbs the monster atop its head and inflicts damage to it by hitting it with his feet, knuckles, elbows, with everything he’s got. The monster cannot reach Mario, its wide body impedes his arms to reach him, so it begins to move frantically and run around even hitting his body against a wall as to make Mario fall off, to no avail. Koopa then retracts his extremities inside his carapace ultimately making Mario jump off (otherwise he could have been crushed inside). Koopa quickly comes out and grabs Mario with both claws, looking at him furiously, trying to crush him; his claws penetrate Mario’s skin, in fact, making the latter bleed. Mario struggles to even move at this point, his face is filled with agony and despair but he manages to take out the hammer he had in his pocket, slips his hand out of Koopa’s grasp and stabs his claw with the hammer’s claw various times creating a deeper wound each time and twisting the hammer. Koopa roars as the hammer inflicts damage to his claw and is embedded into it, tosses Mario away, who falls on his face in the middle of the bridge, creating scratches all over his body. Koopa removes the hammer from his claw and looks at it. “How dare you use my subjects’ weapons against me, impudent animal?” roared Koopa in his own idiom. Mario stands up with some difficulty, turns around, and receives the hammer to his right arm, fracturing the bone. He falls once again, yells, whimpers, cries, and sobs. Koopa laughs in his own way.

As Mario suffers, he begins to remember everything he has been through, everyone he has met in this new world, and everything he is fighting for. He remembers his recent meeting with Luigi and the words of reason he said to him. Professor E. Gadd, the mushroom people, the mushroom children, Peach, and the Mushroom Kingdom. He realizes their future resides on his shoulders, and his giving up could be fatal to the kingdom and potentially the world itself, Gnoomes.

Mario comes back to focusing on the means to end Koopa. He knows the hulking monster is an unbeatable tank (at least in Mario’s state), so he carefully looks at his surroundings and finally sees it: the bridge is being held by gears and ropes at the extreme closest to him, he needs something to cut the ropes for the bridge to fall, taking Koopa with it.

He looks at the hammer and picks it up making sure Koopa doesn’t notice. Then, he runs as fast as possible to the extreme where the ropes are holding the bridge. Koopa looks and sneers at Mario, thinking he is trying to hide or flee into the room where Peach is chained, but as soon as he sees Mario cut and scratch the ropes off with the hammer’s claw like there’s no tomorrow, Koopa runs from the end of the bridge he is in to the middle. The ropes are cut, the bridge collapses, Koopa performs a long jump and manages to grab onto a lower edge. Mario, holding his fractured right arm, stands at the edge of the bridge and looks to see if Koopa fell into the lava; he sees Koopa’s enraged face, who spits fire, Mario gets out of the way quickly but smoke gets in his system, producing cough and suffocation. Mario grabs the hammer again and pummels Koopa’s claw with its claw once again, not caring anymore if he gets burned or not. Koopa roars one last time, harder and louder than ever and falls to his demise.

Mario doesn’t stay to reassure Koopa’s death, he immediately walks to where Peach is, where he also finds mushroom people chained to the wall. His cough is uncontrollable; he walks dragging one foot and holding his arm and the hammer. One of the mushroom persons notices him and points to a key lying among skulls, Mario gets the key and releases the individual, and then releases Peach, who falls down; Mario falls on her lap unconscious. Peach wakes up as she apparently was only slumbering, looks at a devastated Mario and notices she’s unchained. She shakes him while yelling his name “Mario, wake up, wake up! MARIOOOO!!” as the rest of the chained mushroom people make strange shrieks and sounds wanting to be released.

Mario wakes up in the same monotonous bed as before, he has a tube injected on his arm once again with serum entering his veins from it, and his right arm has a cast. He is not bounded this time, however, but his head hurts as if it was saturated with something unpleasant.

“Carbonnatus amonniumus…accustomed to it by now, my masterful moribund monster-marauders’ marauder, Mara-Mario?” It was Professor Gadd smiling at Mario. Mario smiles back feeling safe and relieved, however feeling confused of what happened, he feels as if he was having a dream about what happened the same day he was first bounded to that bed.

“What’s-a happen?”

“You have accomplished what could not have been accomplished before. You have restored our land to its peaceful state. You have vanquished the menace that was King Koopa. Eeh, you are our savior!" Replied the professor with excitement, gusto, and gratitude.

Luigi, Peach and two mushroom persons hurry inside the room after hearing Gadd’s voice. They all celebrate Mario’s awakening with joyful tears and smiles on their faces. A trembling Luigi holding Mario’s beret immediately hugs his brother and gives the beret to him, followed by a now pristine Peach wearing clean new clothes. Peach kisses Mario on the lips and thanks him for going through all that trouble just to save her and promises to bake the biggest cake ever just for Mario. After a while, Mario and Luigi are left alone, and Mario notices Luigi is still trembling, specially his hands. Mario asks him what has happened to him, and Luigi responds it’s just the adrenaline of the new world and everything around it that makes him shake like that. Mario pretends to believe, but thinks it to be more than that, in reality. Luigi exits to help Peach and the mushroom persons tidy up the rest of Gadd’s cabin.

Professor Gadd enters the room and he begins to explain to Mario some of the things that he discovered.

“Very convenient how only a portion of my medicines are sufficient for curing you, look at you now, even your brachiating extremity is utterly restored!” Said he to Mario. “Remember the Testudinesus that rode on a machine shaped like a cloud? I found the debris of it; the scientists are more intellectual and sophisticated than I thought, not only are some of their inventions more modernized and technically efficient than mine, but they also pose deceptive preparations such as the smiling face on the machine; that is merely a manner of luring those child-hearted or naïve individuals, only to be massacred. I believe you have witnessed that and much more of their devices inside that last castle, including my lost Dimen-tal1000 portals used in a labyrinthine fashion…I am deeply sorrowful. Anyhoo, the subjects of Koopa have fled, but to where? The scientists are the key here; they are the ones who could potentially return to invade us with their devices. We necessitate carefulness…Koopa was insane, his ideas went beyond the maniacal, that is why he was imprisoned in days of old; all of those new Testudinesus feared him to the bone because the original King Koopa was a saint in comparison to this one. I am beyond glad he is gone.”

“I be here to protect” said Mario calmly and smiling. “an I rebuild…destructs, an get portals b-back”

“You don’t have to recuperate the portals! But I am grateful that you are here, your valor and persistence gives me a sense of comfort that surpasses all the other feelings I posses.” Responded Gadd as he patted Mario’s chest gently. “Your intent should be sleeping now, you have been awake for some days.” The professor exits the room and Mario falls asleep.

Mario wakes up after ten hours, he feels energized and more alive than ever, and all of his wounds are now healed. Days pass and Mario and Luigi work hard to rebuild every single maltreated castle or establishment in the Mushroom Kingdom (using consumable mushrooms, of course), with the help of the mushroom people from the mushroom huts haven. They do it with big smiles on their faces, having fun while doing so, joking around and laughing with the natives as they all look at them as none other than their heroes. More days pass and everything is rebuilt now, including Elvin Gadd’s Cabin, now simply known as Gadd Science Inc.: a bigger establishment, now mushroom-friendly with all kinds of simple devices made for “entertainment and electro domestic appliances for facilitation of tasks” or so Gadd would say. Its inauguration was a complete success where Mario, Luigi, and Peach were present, all of them wearing by now vests and pantaloons similar to the To’a’d. Mario is given currency by many of the inhabitants as thanks, although he did not accept, the inhabitants did not take “no” for an answer. Mario notices how the coins he has been given are different than the ones he found the first night he was there, these had a line instead of a star on them. Throughout those days, Mario also relates what he has gone through with everyone around him, even Peach about the sad moments of her father’s death, which was revered in a funeral and ceremony where everyone attended and was sorrowful.

Mario and Luigi return home via the portals, they now look at their own world as something boring, dark, and rotten. They only stay for a day before going back to the kingdom, but it occurred to Mario to bring his go-kart with him to show the denizens of the kingdom their means of transportation and fun. Soon, Gadd multiplies the karts, racetracks are constructed on a grass field near one of the castles, and Mario and company have fun racing around, using the enemies’ smaller carapaces as “weapons” to slow down the competing racers. After looking at Mario’s "M" on the go-kart, everyone’s go-kart was adorned with an emblem representing their own personality.

Mario, then, also tests a reconstructed video game Gadd has provided for him, (one that he previously tried to give Mario) using a sort of visor to give a sense of virtual reality, and a very large screen for spectators to enjoy.

The next day, as Mario and Luigi walked across the grass fields looking for any kinds of remains of whatever they could find, they come across a small hidden swamp where they encounter seven dotted reptilian eggs under the mud. They seem hesitant to break and squash them, thinking that if they are indeed Koopa eggs, they could not be vicious and fiendish for they would not have a leader that commanded them, they would merely have cold blood, which is natural for a reptile. So they decided to let them live in peace.

The next morning, Mario, Luigi, and Professor Gadd are called upon to a ceremony in front of the rebuilt Northern Palace Castle where they are each given a medal (and a kiss on the cheek) by Princess Peach. The ministers, superiors , representatives, and citizens of each area of the Mushroom Kingdom are present to honor them. Mario and Luigi are presented with their plumbing clothing they wore that memorable day, except now restored completely, and Professor Gadd is presented with restored laboratory clothes and a new set of glasses; they all wear their new attire to commemorate the memorable day. Big festivities follow, and Peach’s enormous cake is brought in for everyone to enjoy.

As the sun begins to set, Mario and Peach sit together watching it isolated from the rest.

“You will be queen now?” asked Mario almost convinced.

“No, my father did not deserve to die in any way, it was not yet his time…I love him and he will always be the king of Mushroom.” Said she as a tear rolled down her cheek. Mario smiles in sympathy and puts his arm around her. Luigi, Professor Gadd and two of the children Mario saved walk up to the couple. Mario talks to the children and begins to play with them on the grass while Luigi sits there watching them. Professor Gadd stays with Peach.

“Who would have thought so? The dark world of ‘Earth’ brought us a shiny savior, an enhanced hero filled with valor…and compassion: Superlative Mario, as I like to call him.” Said Gadd to Peach.

“Super Mario, for short” exclaimed Peach before hugging Gadd and then running up to Mario and the children to play together with them.

Mario, Luigi, Peach, and the children continue to have fun. Everybody else joins them and soon they all behold fireworks being shot into the starry skies.

FIN

...Unbeknownst to Mario, a levitating turtle-creature with no wings wearing strange blue ragged clothing and a wand looks for Koopa, and it finds it just hanging on an edge awaiting his doom. The levitating creature uses the wand to engulf Koopa in a bubble-like substance to levitate him to safety and they both fly away. Koopa’s ferocious roar is heard, signifying the desire for vengeance.

I may seem like an omnipresent being always watching from above like a bird. But time has come to pass and this story has become legend. A legend that I just related to my grandchildren and am now sharing with you. I predict it will have an impact, a great impact in fact, as Mario will be revered as the hero he once was, only on Earth. His memory will be forever living; immortal, through books, retelling of his accomplishments on games, and every kind of merchandise imaginable.

(All characters and some settings are copyrighted and belong to Nintendo, Novel created and registered by Axtlár based on the accounts from the "Super Mario" games. Plagiarization not intended; it is merely a fanatic tribute for entertainment purposes.)

Once inside the northern Palace Castle, it is grim, dark, and foul. Oxygen is lacking, there is smoke everywhere, as well as bones, fire, lava, and death. That is where King Toadstool VII once resided; a joyful, elegant place, but it now seems like King Koopa and his subjects made it their own home: the floors have been burrowed and excavated in order to connect with the underground, -activating a dormant volcano, encompassing the inferior end of the castle with its lava- and to expand to their liking, new mechanisms have been implemented for transportation measures between the surface and underground, as well as traps and rotating mechanisms with massive stones and skulls engulfed in flames to impede the passing of intruders. Also, the cadavers of countless mushroom people could be seen, they were wearing a kind of uniform and weapons; it was the Mushroom Kingdom’s Army. Fallen.

Mario, although suffocating a bit, advances through the castle. The attention of the familiar reptilian beasts is brought upon him, but Mario at this point does not wish to fight them; he just goes up as fast as he can, repelling the creatures, avoiding traps. When the top is reached, Mario is relieved that air is abundant here, but finds nothing at all, whereas in the last castles visited, that was where prisoners were found. King Koopa has tricked him, it seemed “They are not here…” Thought he. Then he remembers that Koopa’s race used to live underground, and that somehow they wanted to own both territories, the upper and lower. “His throne is in this castle, only below…He wants me to come down and do it his way, by his rules…in his turf.”

Mario rips off part of his already ripped sleeve, takes the cloth and wraps it around his face, leaving only his eyes visible.

“Essi vogliono la guerra...? Guerra avrà!”

Mario shouts offensively to the vicious beasts and plunges to fight them off and best them with ease, and then he descends and descends into the enormous castle until he finds himself in a wall-less, precipice filled, corridor room with elevation mechanisms, a room that wasn’t exactly designed for fighting, for anyone could fall to the precipice below if not careful, or fall on top of the platforms the elevation mechanisms provided; one moved up and the other down.

The elevator closest to him is going up, but Mario wants to go down only, he needs to cross that first long gap where the elevator comes through in order to reach the elevator going down, but it seems like a strenuous task. Jumping on a platform to go up significantly, to then jump forward and down to the next surface could potentially injure him and even kill him, seeing as how fast the elevator moves and how high it is when he would jump off it.

Suddenly, flaps of wings can be heard, and Mario’s nightmare at this point makes an appearance: it is a flock of flying reptiles all salivating waiting to devour the persistent pest that is Mario for them and their “king”. Mario cannot believe it, his face shows frustration and no sign of faith; that is the worst terrain for even defending oneself, he thought of running away back where he came from to fight them off there, but then he thought “whatever happens, happens, there’s no time”. He readies his fists and awaits the creatures to come to him.

Then, something is being fired rapidly from behind Mario that hits the multiple reptilian targets. They are medium-sized flaming stones burning the enemies’ wings and other extremities, denting their carapaces and sending them to their doom below.

Mario looks behind him while covering his head at the same time, and finds Luigi standing there with an aura of fire surrounding him making his green and blue clothing seem lighter in tone coloration. Mario smiles with such a passion that his rigid sentimental exoskeleton cracks and he begins to cry and sob uncontrollably and holds Luigi while the latter cries as well from what he sees. Mario finally experiences something familiar, comfortable, and normal from all the excessive turmoil that he has withstood, and it was a moment of happiness and relief like he has never felt before.

A much needed salvation from a brother, and reconciliation followed. What both Mario and Luigi conversed if in English:

“I am sorry, Mario, I shouldn’t ha-“

“No, don’t even say anything about that idiocy that happened between us. What I am sorry about now is coming here, we are now both in danger.”

“I was right about one thing: She is not normal. And her not being normal makes it all the better, specially for you since you love adventures. Sometimes bellisimas are more than just looks; they have surprises worth knowing, and I think this is what you have with Peach. You see? It’s a trial. It’s a test to see if you can accomplish getting the best of something, in this case the best girl for you, by going through hell and surviving first.”

“Thank you, brother” said Mario content of Luigi’s view, putting his hand on Luigi’s shoulder. He then notices Luigi is wearing a pair of gloves identical to the ones he has.

“So, you met the nutty professor, huh?”

“Yeah, he was there when I came here through the blue door-thing. He explained everything to me that’s going on, helped me get here with a plane of his, then we crashed just near this castle (no gas), and he gave me the gloves, mushrooms and flowers. He’s a know-it-all, but a good one…He stayed with his plane.”

“Yes, I’m fond of him; he’s very helpful…we have to help him rebuild his place and maybe these castles, too. I already promised him, and it wouldn’t be polite if we just left after all he has helped us.”

“Yes, I agree…He also told me that to get to Koopa’s room, we would have to go through a corridor with two Koopa statues on the sides. And look, there they are.” Luigi points across the gap, the elevators, and the corridor, where, at the very end in the distance, two statues depicted as either Koopa or his ancestors are erected, leading the way to a room turning left from there. “He can see where the door-things open, and that’s one location where he saw activity last…Anyway, Mario, let’s do this, let’s kick that deformed turtle right in the tail and save Peach! Here, have some mushrooms and flow—“

Said Luigi excitedly, while holding out his hand with the provisions, but before he could finish his sentence and give Mario the enhancements, a flying turtle-beast flew right past, hitting and clipping Luigi’s hand in the process, making most of the provisions fall to the precipice.

Luigi, although hesitantly, fires more flaming stones at the enemy that frantically flies, while Mario looks in anger. Then the second wave of flying beasts approaches. Luigi, with the fire and strength enhancement he possesses, accords quickly with Mario to help him jump to the other side (surface between both elevators), only so both of them can continue forward, so Luigi helps him jump across and Mario loses his beret as it falls to the precipice.

Luigi dispatches most as he tries to not only save and defend himself, but also his defenseless brother Mario. He continues to shoot flaming stones potently, various of those stones end up hitting the ceiling, making a devastating rockslide happen, that fills up the gap in the second elevator (going down) and dysfunctions it. While the rocks continue to fall, Luigi spots one of the flowers he had lying on the floor and picks it up. He decides to lure the creatures away, so he jumps on the elevator going up, throws the flower to Mario who at this time feels worthless and begins to cry once again after the joy of finding his brother turns to preoccupation.

“Find and save her, Mario! You represent the Earth and Italia, don’t forget it, so make us proud!” shouted Luigi to Mario while going up. The creatures followed and attacked, the flame aura dissipated from Luigi, and they were gone out of Mario’s visibility to the upper level as the elevator’s platforms continue to move up. Mario falls to his knees and yells his brother’s name at the top of his lungs, with a sound even superior to the extremely loud sound of the rocks falling.

The rocks cease to fall. Mario gets up, puts his worries and sadness aside thinking Luigi, as hot-headed as he is, can survive up there. “I will come back for you after this.” Thought he before picking up the flower Luigi threw to the floor, putting it inside his pocket and hurrying to climb the rocks blocking the gap, therefore crossing it and reaching the infamous statues that lead closer to King Koopa.

(All characters and some settings are copyrighted and belong to Nintendo, Novel created and registered by Axtlár based on the accounts from the "Super Mario" games. Plagiarization not intended; it is merely a fanatic tribute for entertainment purposes.)